PhD Thesis Defense: Maud Formanek
CFM Seminars
- Speaker
-
Maud Formanek
- When
-
2020/01/17
11:30 - Place
- CFM Auditorium
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### **Computational Investigations of Single-Chain Nanoparticles: Novel
Synthesis Routes, Complex Flow Behavior and Reversible Gel Formation**
**C** **andidate: Maud Formanek**
**Supervisors:** Ángel Moreno
**Research group:** Polymers and Soft Matter
**When:** January 17, 2020 (10:30h)
**Where:** CFM AUDITORIUM
[ **Download pdf**](https://cfm.ehu.es/view/files/ThesisMaud_formanek.pdf)
### **Summary**
We investigate the structural and dynamical properties of single-chain
nanoparticles in poorly understood or even unexplored complex environments:
crowding conditions and shear flows. Computer simulations are employed as a
tool to calculate observables that can either not be accessed through
experiments or are indirectly obtained from them on the basis of
approximations or model as- sumptions. Furthermore, the possibility of
investigating single SCNPs with a specific topology instead of the averages of
a polydisperse mixture produced by experiments allows us to pose the
fundamental question of the role of polymer topology in the resulting
structure and dynamics.
Three main topics are covered: (i) a novel synthesis protocol based on a
change from linear to ring polymer precursors and performing the cross-linking
procedure under crowding conditions; (ii) the complex response of SCNPs to
homogeneous shear flows, at the single-molecule level and in the semi-dilute
regime; (iii) gel formation in systems of reversible SCNPs stemming from the
interplay of intramolecular and intermolecular bonds.
![](https://cfm.ehu.es/view/files/TOC-sheardens-600x206.jpg)
Deformation of a semi-dilute monodisperse SCNP solution under shear.